Arkansas' unemployment rate for February inched up to 3.8 percent from 3.7 percent in January, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday.
The national unemployment rate also was 3.8 percent in February.
The slight increase in the unemployment rate isn't worrisome, said Michael Pakko, chief economist at the Arkansas Economic Development Institute at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
The increase is mainly attributable to the number of unemployed people in the past two months, about 1,500, Pakko said.
"But there has also been strong employment growth as well," Pakko said.
Almost 6,600 more Arkansans were employed in February compared with the same month last year.
Seven major industrial sectors added jobs in February compared with February last year and four sectors showed declines in jobs.
Manufacturing led with an increase of 4,700 jobs. Most of the growth -- 4,200 jobs -- was in durable goods, including expansions in machinery, transportation equipment and fabricated metal products, the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services said.
Arkansas had 165,200 seasonally adjusted manufacturing jobs in February, the most in almost 10 years, since April 2009 when there were 166,100 manufacturing jobs in Arkansas.
"It's taken us a while to get there," said Mervin Jebaraj, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.
"We've been producing more than we were before the recession with just fewer jobs," Jebaraj said. "In other words, manufacturing volume has been higher than it was, even if the [manufacturing] employment didn't come back."
Over the past year, manufacturing has accounted for about 40 percent of total job growth in Arkansas, Pakko said.
Arkansas manufacturers recorded strong jobs growth in February, said Greg Kaza, executive director of the Arkansas Policy Foundation in Little Rock.
"Over the last year, Arkansas manufacturing recorded the third-highest job creation rate in the 12-state southeast region, trailing only South Carolina and West Virginia," Kaza said. "Among border states, Arkansas trailed only Texas."
Manufacturing employment grew by 3.3 percent in Arkansas from February 2018 to February 2019, Kaza said. South Carolina manufacturing grew by 3.5 percent over the same period and West Virginia added 3.4 percent in manufacturing, Kaza said.
Manufacturing jobs grew by 3.7 percent in Texas, Kaza said.
Construction jobs in Arkansas fell by 200 from February last year to last month. Thirty-seven states added construction jobs between February 2018 and February this year, the Associated General Contractors of America said.
Construction employment increased in only 16 states between January and February this year. Arkansas lost 400 jobs from January to February.
The slowdown may reflect widespread severe weather as well as a shortage of qualified workers, the contractors said.
"Although job growth remains widespread on a year-over-year basis, the combination of exceptionally bad weather and record-low unemployment in many states stopped the growth of construction jobs at least temporarily in February," said Ken Simonson, chief economist of the group. "The record number of job openings in construction reported in the government's job openings and labor turnover survey for January shows that finding qualified construction workers is still a challenge."
Iowa, New Hampshire, North Dakota and Vermont had the lowest unemployment rate in February at 2.4 percent each followed by Hawaii at 2.7 percent.
Alaska had the highest rate at 6.5 percent, followed by West Virginia at 5.2 percent, Arizona and New Mexico at 5.1 percent each, and Louisiana at 4.9 percent.
Business on 03/23/2019